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Learning Through Play Putting SDG4 Into Practice: Learning Through Play

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Learning Through Play Putting SDG4 Into Practice: Learning Through Play Technical Brief No. 3 Putting SDG4 into practice Learning through play Putting SDG4 into practice: Learning through play Inclusive and equitable education provides all learners with the capabilities to become economically productive, develop sustainable livelihoods, contribute to peaceful societies and enhance individual wellbeing. This technical brief describes how learning through play pedagogies contribute to the holistic development of young children, laying the foundations for lifelong learning. The experiences of VVOB demonstrate how innovative play-based pedagogies can be introduced successfully at the classroom level by creating favourable policy environments and building capacity of pre-service and in-service teacher professional development institutions. Why learning through play matters Learning through play has gained momentum in early childhood education and beyond. Learning through play is proven to enhance wellbeing and involvement in learning. It fosters a breadth of skills and cultivates creativity and imagination, thus preparing learners for success in the 21st century. Researchers have documented multiple positive effects from learning through play: Play facilitates holistic development. also acquire crucial ‘learning-to-learn’ skills, which will help them Too often, learning is understood as a mainly cognitive and continue to learn throughout life. academic process of building knowledge and acquiring skills. But research has shown that learning is much more diverse. Besides Play provides opportunities for children to actively a cognitive process, learning is also physical, social, linguistic, explore and interact with other children, adults and emotional and creative. Learning in these different domains is the environment. interconnected. Play allows children to engage with multiple This is in line with constructivist and social constructivist theories domains of learning simultaneously. A child playing hide-and-seek, of learning, which state children construct knowledge and meaning for instance, is physically active, exercising executive functions from their active experiences and that learning is a collaborative like patience and self-control, developing spatial awareness and process. interacting socially. Play increases wellbeing and involvement. Play is a natural way of learning. In play, children have many choices. Children choose (with) Play and learning cannot be separated. Play is fundamental to how what and how they play. Giving learners choice stimulates their we learn. From a very young age, children naturally engage in playful motivation and involvement and increases their wellbeing. Wellbeing learning experiences. Most learning happens incidentally. It is not is also increased because play is an inherently joyful activity. Play until later, when children enter formal schooling, that learning provides children with safe spaces to exercise skills they will later becomes more intentional. Through play, children are constantly need in more challenging contexts. For instance, in roleplay children learning about and connecting with their environments. They can learn how to deal with conflicts. Learning through play and SDG4 SDG4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and target 4.2). This will significantly increase the number of children promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Learning through who are developmentally on track in learning and their psychosocial play, as an effective pedagogical approach to fostering deeper level wellbeing, ready for primary education and for acquiring the learning and vital learning-to-learn skills, is essential in realising this knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development in the 21st goal. century. Because of its lifelong learning benefits and the importance of early As a partner for putting SDG4 into practice, VVOB is committed to experiences for later development, learning through play is an including learning through play in all its early childhood education indispensable element of quality early childhood education. By 2030, programmes. all boys and girls should have access to such an education (SDG 2 VVOB Technical Brief No. 3 What is learning through play Characteristics VVOB’s understanding of learning through play is inspired by 2. Learning through play is meaningful. For children to learn the research of Jennifer M. Zosh and the group of researchers she through play they need to be able to connect their experiences to collaborated with to publish important conceptual work in 2017 and things they already understand, to something that makes sense to 2018 *. them and they feel connected to, or to something that is concrete. They emphasise that true play, and learning through play, requires 3. Learning through play is actively engaging. It implies children children to experience agency. Play implies that children can take are involved with and absorbed by what they are doing and that they charge and make choices. For children to be able to learn through can persist despite distractions. In the research by Zosh this is also play, they need to have control, initiative and leadership over their referred to as being ‘minds-on’. Being actively engaged also requires actions. This does not mean that adults can or should not have a role some level of self-direction. in children’s play, but that adults see the child as capable to (jointly) plan and control the flow of activities during play. 4. Learning through play is iterative. Iteration refers to children repeatedly trying out new possibilities, revising hypotheses and Zosh and her colleagues identify five characteristics that define exploring other ways to do things. This way, new brain networks are playful learning activities: created and deeper level learning is generated. 1. Learning through play is joyful. When learning through play, 5. Learning through play is socially interactive. Although play children experience pleasure, motivation, surprise, thrill, etc. Joy is can happen individually, learning through play is more powerful important because it leads to motivation but also because positive in social interactions. By sharing ideas, interacting, collaborating emotions are an important facilitator for learning. Research shows and communicating, children build a deeper understanding and that negative emotions and experiences obstruct our ability to learn. powerful connections with others. Social interaction is important for motivation, but also for developing critical thinking skills and other more complex learning-to-learn skills. * Zosh, J. M., Hopkins, E. J., Jensen, H., Liu, C., Neale, D., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Solis, S. L., & Whitebread, D. (2017). Learning through play: a review of the evidence (white paper). The LEGO Foundation, DK. // Zosh JM, Hirsh-Pasek K, Hopkins EJ, Jensen H, Liu C, Neale D, Solis SL and Whitebread D (2018). Accessing the Inaccessible: Redefining Play as a Spectrum. Front. Psychol.9:1124. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01124 www.vvob.org 3 Putting SDG4 into practice: Learning through play Types of playful learning Play, and learning through play, unfolds on a spectrum depending Learning can take place at all levels of the continuum. Different types on the intensity and type of guidance and support from adults, as of play will lead to different learning outcomes and have different well as on how explicitly learning goals are set. results in different settings. While free play might be beneficial for developing socio-emotional skills, guided play could be better to At one end of the spectrum, Zosh and her colleagues identify ‘free support STEM learning. Generally, Zosh and her co-authors do play’. Children experience the freedom to play and explore without argue that guided play maximises learning more than other types of limitations or interference. They are free to initiate the play context play. and direct the play. There is no explicit learning goal, although learning does happen. Further along the spectrum, play also occurs, In VVOB’s interventions, any dimension of play can be the focus. but in increasingly structured environments. Materials, physical The different countries and contexts where we work require tailored spaces, and teachers or parents can all structure play. Guided play approaches. In many formal early childhood education systems, is where the adult (teacher, parent) chooses or arranges a context, introducing guided play to classrooms is an ambitious but feasible and sets a learning goal, but the child directs the play in that setting. goal. In other settings, introducing playful elements in higher levels Games are a particular form of guided play where play is directed by of education can be an inspiring first step towards the learning predefined rules. Even further there is co-opted play, where play is through play spectrum. In settings where children have less and less initiated by the child and adults step in to direct the play towards a ‘free time’ to explore and discover the world without constraints, certain learning goal. Lastly under the umbrella of learning through raising teachers’ and parents’ awareness of the benefits of free play is play, is playful instruction. This is straightforward instruction by also very relevant. adults who initiate and direct learning while using playful elements. Play as a spectrum Free play Guided Games Co-opted Playful Direct play play instruction instruction Initiated by: Child Adult Adult Child Adult Adult Directed by: Child Child Child Adult Adult Adult Explicit learning No Yes Yes
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